Aier Eye Hospital Reports H1 Net Profit Exceeding RMB 340 Million, Up 25%-35% Year-on-Year, and Files IPO Prospectus

VCBeat (WeChat: vcbeat) has learned that on the evening of July 13, Aier Eye Hospital Group released its 2017 semi-annual performance forecast. During the reporting period, the company’s net profit attributable to shareholders ranged from RMB 340.9406 million to RMB 368.2159 million, representing a year-on-year increase of 25%–35%. This marks continued robust growth despite the high base recorded in the same period last year.

Chen Bang, Chairman of Aier Eye Hospital Group, stated that as demand for ophthalmic medical services continues to be unleashed, the company’s brand influence has steadily strengthened. In the first half of the year, various business segments worked in synergy, while its scientific research capabilities reached a new level. Meanwhile, its global expansion has advanced steadily, further solidifying its leading position, and the pattern of multi-polar growth drivers has taken shape.

It is understood that in the first half of the year, Aier Eye Hospital Group achieved coordinated development across all business segments. Its core businesses maintained robust growth, while “long-tail” service lines made significant progress. The number of hospitals that have moved beyond the incubation phase and achieved profitability has increased year over year, and the medical quality system and refined management framework have yielded remarkable results. Notably, the “Provincial Capital Partner Program,” launched by the company in 2015, is set to conclude successfully this year. The 14 quasi-new provincial-capital-level hospitals included in the program have demonstrated rapid growth, emerging as the “second tier” driving the company’s sustained development.

The Company announced that the “Academician and Expert Workstation” and the “Collaborative R&D Center for Postdoctoral Research Stations” were established successively in the first half of the year, further solidifying Aier Eye Hospital’s strategic layout integrating medical care, education, and research. Meanwhile, the Company set up an overseas innovation investment fund to keep abreast of global trends in high-tech fields of ophthalmology and visual science. With the continuous expansion of its industry-leading expert team and the gradual graduation of doctoral and master’s students trained by the Aier School of Ophthalmology at Central South University, Aier Eye Hospital is increasingly becoming the world’s premier platform for ophthalmic development.

In the first half of this year, the acquisition of the U.S.-based Wang Vision Eye Center was completed, and progress on the takeover of Clínica Baviera, S.A., Europe’s largest listed chain of ophthalmic medical providers, has proceeded smoothly. Global expansion not only helps to continuously bolster the company’s financial performance but also strengthens its ability to integrate high-quality ophthalmic resources, empowering Aier Eye Hospital to become the world’s strongest player in the sector, building upon its existing position as the largest globally.

A researcher at a leading securities firm stated that Aier Eye Hospital has become a global benchmark for the healthcare services industry, with the Matthew effect of "the strong getting stronger" already evident. Its mature hospitals are performing well, a large cohort of new hospitals is accelerating growth, and international expansion is generating synergies, resulting in robust endogenous growth momentum.

Meanwhile, the first batch of hospitals under this year’s M&A fund were injected into the listed company at relatively low valuations, suggesting that the company is poised for significant inorganic growth momentum in the future.